As another year folds out, it is time once again to look back and take stock or the highs and lows, before a fresh year rolls in. 2011 has had its moments and has overall been a rather good year, and trying to extract a list of twenty albums from the hundreds, thousands possibly, that I have listened to, loved, hated, reviewed or not, tried to make sense of or misunderstood seems a pretty restrictive effort at best. Still, it is always good to look back and realise that some records have made more of a mark than others, some almost imperceptibly. So, here is, in twenty records, what 2011 was made of…

1.

Review:
There is such urgency throughout this record that it is quite astonishing how Hval manages to retain any lightness in her music, but she does, and [Helge] Sten picks up on just enough to bring it all to life in sprightly bright colours and tones. Continue Reading »

Adding to the myriad of projects and monikers he has on the go at any one time, Gerald Donald, of Heinrich Mueller as he likes to be known these days, originally of enigmatic Detroit techno outfit Drexciya, returns to Rephlex with Zwischenwelt (which translates as ‘between world’), a band also consisting of Susana Correia, Penelope Lopez and Beta Evers. The fruit of collaborative exchanges over the web, Paranormale Activität is as cold and bleak as a nuclear winter, its minimal electronic formations never equating to much more than just a handful of sounds at any one time, over which hangs Evers austere vocals, delivered with robotic poise and precision.

Fueled with tales of paranormal activity, premonition and clairvoyance, this album distills somber themes on dystopian electronic backdrops, sounding like Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity experienced through the negative space of a black hole. Continue Reading »